Most unexpected hate figure

No contest: it was nerdy New York Times statistician Nate Silver, whose implacable refusal to stop predicting an Obama win drove Republicans, and less numerate pundits, into a frenzy. How, they demanded, could his computer model keep showing such good news for the Democrats when old hands, like NBC's Joe Scarborough – simply by sniffing the air and studying their guts – knew that the race was "tight as a tick"? This was the election of "unskewed" polls (translation: polls revised retroactively in order to favour your chosen candidate). And you can expect the "war on math" to get worse: as pollsters and campaigners get ever more sophisticated in their data-collection, commentators paid to speculate about the horse-race see their livelihoods at risk.

Word least likely to be mentioned ever again by a Republican talking-head after the election, regardless of who wins

Andy Warhol award for the person made briefly world-famous during the campaign with the least justification

Republican primary candidate Herman Cain. But only because attention-seeking birther conspiracist and hair innovator Donald Trump was, for inexplicable reasons, already world-famous. The two should now establish a combined pizza parlour/real estate business in a very small town in a remote part of Wisconsin, and never seek the media spotlight again. Rudy Giuliani may wish to consider joining them.

Biggest "game-changer"/ "October Surprise"

Not awarded: the truth is that, despite many false alarms, there wasn't one. (Remember Matt Drudge's supposedly shocking video of Obama's "other race speech"? Neither does anyone else.) Here's what happened instead: the two campaigns and their super-PAC backers spent more than $1.8bn; avoided the biggest issues; focused on trading insults; tailored their messages for the benefit of a few undecided voters in Ohio; and made sure their candidates were never subjected to tough interviews. This went on for months on end, until Ohio, the nation and the world were thoroughly disillusioned and annoyed. Great job, everyone!